Wednesday, November 10, 2010

VERY BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is my ninth year of participating in a print exchange of Chinese New Years greetings on Baren Forum. Each year I have made a print, about 4x6 and mailed them out to about 50 others and they send one to me... or at least they are suppose to. Most do eventually. This year is the year of the tiger. I usually get mine out around the first of the year, but not this year. I had almost decided to wait and send them out with the next years print, but that could lead to even more procrastination. So last week, I took a few days and yesterday put them all in the mail.


The black is printed with linoleum which I had carved months ago. The bamboo was printed with one woodblock reductive, the ochre first and then the green. I cut another woodblock for the "2010" which originally included color for the tiger, but I liked her better white. And 2010 is actually the year of the white tiger so that it is. I use Japanese methods for printing.

I came to Juneau yesterday and flying to Anchorage today. Will be back home before Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll put some photos on before I get back.

Monday, November 8, 2010

THE PAINT IS DRYING

Here are a couple of paintings that have dried enough to put in the scanner.


Almost to the Top 9 x 9 inches oil on gessoed watercolor paper

So often I don't see something wrong in a painting until I've put it on the screen. The left tree needs a lot of redoing and I think a little more lighter plants at the bottom would lead into the painting better. I'm sure liking being able to fix things, unlike with watercolor.




Wetland Path 8 1/2 x8 1/2 inches oil on Canson Canva-Paper

I read about doing an under-painting and tried it with this one. I used burnt sienna. I like the way the color shows through. I don't know if splattering is a common oil technique, but its what I would have done with watercolor and it seemed to work.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

GRANITE COVE VIEW

I've continued painting with the oils almost everyday and doing lots of reading and looking at the way other people do them and making progress. My years of painting with watercolor have certainly hastened the progress.

I've tried to photograph some but can't get anything but blurs or glare, so guess I'll have to wait for a sunshiny day, or at least one that isn't raining all day or get my tripod out to get a decent photo. This one has dried enough to put in the scanner, though there was a little white speck of paint to clean off the plate of glass when I finished. Any suggestions for photographing wet oil paints would be greatly appreciated.



GRANITE BEACH VIEW water mixable oils on watercolor paper 5.5x5.5 inches

This is from a photo I took on a kayak and camping trip last May.